The Safety of Our Children
by tinylexie
Summary: The Committee hearing on what should be done to Buckbeak after his attack on Draco.


Lucius watched with an almost bored expression on his face as Hagrid kept on dropping his notes and forgetting what he was about to say.

This was no challenge. Getting that hippogriff executed would be no problem at all.

Narcissa was going to be very pleased. It had not mattered to her that Draco's injuries had been minor and had then been quickly healed. All she had cared about was that her precious son had been hurt and that no one had seemed to care.

Well, Lucius had made sure that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures had cared.

Lucius continued to watch as Hagrid looked around at everyone in the room, still completely speechless and still looking completely like an idiot.

"Are you through yet with saying your piece?" Lucius asked Hagrid. "I am quite sure that this Committee does not want to spend all day on this case. They do have other responsibilities, after all."

Hagrid looked at Lucius in anger, but he didn't say anything.

Typical. Hagrid, like so many others, had no problem with speaking ill of Lucius behind his back. But as soon as the aristocratic wizard entered the room, all of a sudden no one could think of anything bad to say about him.

"I'm done," Hagrid finally said in a strangled voice. The reality of the situation seemed to finally be dawning on him.

"Good," Lucius spoke.

He then stood up and directed his attention to the Committee. "I would like to present my side now. I promise that I will keep it as short as possible."

Lucius glanced over at Hagrid and sneered at him as he spoke his last statement.

Hagrid was much too depressed now to glare back at the blond-haired wizard. Instead, all that Hagrid offered was a hopeless, hollow expression in his eyes.

This was really going to be way too easy. It was almost a shame. But then again, it was not often that Lucius was faced with a real challenge.

The head of the Committee, meanwhile, inclined his head respectfully towards Lucius. "You may speak, Mr. Malfoy."

"To put it simply," Lucius said, "my son was injured in Mr. Hagrid's class by the hippogriff in question, and nothing was done about it by Headmaster Dumbledore. There were no investigations on what went wrong, and there was nothing said about what could possibly be done to prevent something like this from happening again in the future. Naturally, that caused me to have a lot of concern for not just my son but for _all_ the students at Hogwarts."

As Lucius was speaking, he made sure to make eye contact with all the Committee members that he knew had children of their own, and he could see that his words were having the desired effect on them.

"I believe that most of us would agree that our children should feel safe while they're at school," Lucius continued, "and if there ever is a situation in which they are not, then something needs to be done to fix it. I for one never want to receive another letter that says that my son was injured from attending a class, but that I shouldn't worry too much about it because clearly it was not serious enough for the Headmaster to take any action."

The Committee members nodded their heads in approval at Lucius's speech.

"I warned the class that it was dangerous to insult a hippogriff," Hagrid suddenly blurted out.

Lucius turned to face Hagrid.

"Are you trying to blame my son for the injuries that he suffered?" Lucius asked angrily. "You were supposed to be the teacher, the one in charge of keeping everyone safe."

Lucius's voice then turned calmer. "I won't deny that sometimes my son Draco does not listen to direction. However, we also can't forget that he's a teenager, and that teenagers are easily distracted and don't always listen as we would like."

As he was speaking, Lucius nodded his head at a witch who he knew had a son Draco's age.

The witch nodded her head at Lucius in the shared understanding of a parent with a teenager.

Lucius then directed his attention back to Hagrid.

"You should not have assumed," the aristocratic wizard spoke, "that my son had heard your warning. I won't deny that he probably wasn't paying attention to you, but I also know for a fact, since I am a father, that teenagers sometimes are that way.

"Now, I'm sure that you had no ill intentions towards my son. But the fact of the matter is, you failed to keep him safe. I don't think I'm asking for too much when I say that I expect my son to be kept out of danger while he is at school. I think that _all_ parents should have the comfort of knowing that when they send their children to school that nothing bad is going to happen to them."

Lucius then looked back at the Committee. "That's all I have to say. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my concerns."

"It was no problem at all, Mr. Malfoy," the head of the Committee replied. "The safety of your son and of all the other students at Hogwarts are of great concern to us. None of us wants to see a child being hurt. We wish now to discuss this matter in private. We would appreciate if you both step outside for a moment."

"Of course," Lucius smiled politely.

Hagrid just nodded his head.

As soon as they were outside the room and the door closed, Lucius turned to look at Hagrid.

"That hippogriff of yours is as good as dead."


End file.
